Page 190 of Murder in the Family

Wow, that escalated quickly—

FREEZE FRAME on Alan. His face is thunderous.

CUT TO: Studio.

BILL SERAFINI

(turning to the team)

I’m with Laila – thatdidescalate quickly. Too darn quickly, in fact. Which made me wonder, what could possibly have got Alan so exercised? I mean, he has no dog in this fight, right?

He turns to Alan, but he says nothing.

Cat got your tongue, buddy? Oh well, I think I can do the next part on my own.

He taps his keyboard again. MONTAGE of photos appears on the screen. A school photo of small boys sat in rows; a family snap of two parents, a girl, a boy and a younger boy; a much later picture of a family gathering, clearly screen-grabbed from Facebook.

ALAN CANNING

Where the hell did you get all that?

BILL SERAFINI

(smiling and shrugging)

All on the web, my friend, if you know where – and how – to look. As my friend Tarek most certainly does.

He turns to the team again; some of them are looking distinctly uneasy.

So, to resume, our friend Alan here was born in Croydon in 1967. He had an older brother, Graham, born in 1962, and a sister, Eileen, born in 1958. I’ll save you the trouble of doing the math: Eileen’s 65 now. And she would have been 40 in 1998.

LAILA FURNESS

Don’t tell me you think Eileen was the woman Luke met in Assos?

BILL SERAFINI

Irene would be an easy mistake for Eileen, wouldn’t it? And someone else thought she was called Carrie.

He gives them a meaningful look.

MITCHELL CLARKE

OK – so you think Carriecould be an equally easy mistake for Canning.

BILL SERAFINI

Right—

ALAN CANNING

(pointing at Bill)

How dare you – how fuckingdareyou go poking about in my family’s business—

BILL SERAFINI

You’re saying I’m wrong? That this womanwasn’tyour sister?—

---